Golden Globes 2025 recap: Shogun and Baby Reindeer score as Nikki Glaser roasts ‘Ozempic’s biggest night’

The 82nd Golden Globes has wrapped up for another year.

If you missed if, stars of screen including Nicole Kidman, Demi Moore, Heidi Klum and Naomi Watts brought elegant fashion to the awards in Beverly Hills.

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A lovely moment for Emilia Perez which won for best comedy or musical picture.

The opera-esque film tells the story of a transgender woman who fakes her death and re-emerges as the titular Emilia Perez, and the women around her.

Karla Sofia Gascon, a Spanish transgender woman gave the acceptance speech in a stirring moment which acknowledges the difficulty of the trans experience and their rights being assailed.

“Light always wins over darkness,” she said. “I have a lot of things to say to you because you come and maybe put us in jail, you come beat us up but you can never take away our soul, our resistance or identity.

“All I want to say to you, raise your voice and say ‘I am who I am, not who you want me to be’.”

If you were watching the live telecast of the awards ceremony, you may have noticed a crowd shot in which Netflix co-chief executive Ted Sarandos gave a little fist pump.

Emilia Perez is distributed in the US on Netflix but in Australia, it will have a theatrical release in cinemas on January 16 through local company Kismet.

When Emilia Perez premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May, it was to rapturous reviews and reactions. But when it came out on Netflix in the US later in the year, it became a more divisive film.

Anecdotally, those who saw it home were much cooler on it than those who saw it on a big screen.

Emilia Perez is exactly the kind of film - heightened, emotional, melodramatic - that works far, far better in an immersive cinema experience. You lose a lot of the experience if you see it for the first time on a streaming platform.

So, sure, Sarandos can give himself a little pat on the back for buying Emilia Perez, but Netflix should not be congratulated for taking a cinema movie and relegating it to streaming. At least in Australia, we won’t be subjected to that fate.

Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy

Anora

Challengers

Emilia Perez A Real Pain

The Substance

Wicked

Director and co-writer Brady Corbet admitted he only prepared one speech, which he already used when he won in the directing category, so he’s off-piste now.

He mentioned the film had a hard time in getting made and fell over a bunch of times and said that no one was “asking for a three-and-a-half-hour film about a mid-century designer”.

He made an passionate plea for the filmmaker and argued that the tie-breaker vote on the final cut should go to the director.

“It is a controversial statement but should not be,” he said. “It should not be controversial at all. I was told that this film was undistributable. I was told that no one would come out and see it, I was told the film would not work.

“I don’t resent that. And I want to use this as an opportunity to lift up filmmakers, not just fellow nominees but all the extraordinary directors in this room. Films do not exist without the filmmakers. Please let’s support them, let’s prop them up.”

The Brutalist will be released on January 23.

Motion Picture – Drama

The Brutalist

A Complete Unknown

Conclave

Dune: Part Two

Nickel Boys

September 5

Adrien Brody really excels when he plays a Holocaust survivor. In The Brutalist, he plays a Hungarian immigrant and architect who wrestles with creation and art and the broken promises of the American Dream.

Brody’s mother immigrated from Hungary as well, and he paid tribute to his family’s history.

“This story is really the character’s journey, which is very reminiscent of my mother’s and my ancestral journey of fleeing the horrors of war and coming to this great country.

“I owe so much to my mother and my grandparents for their sacrifice and although I do not know fully how to express all of the challenges that you have faced and experienced and the many people who have struggled immigrating to this country, my hope is that this work stands to lift you up a bit and to give you a voice.”

In 2003, he won an Oscar for playing another Holocaust survivor in The Pianist.

Male Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama

Adrien Brody, The Brutalist

Timothee Chalamet, A Complete Unknown

Daniel Craig, Queer

Colman Domingo, Sing Sing

Ralph Fiennes, Conclave

Sebastian Stan, The Apprentice

This was always an open category but few would’ve tipped Brazilian actor Fernanda Torres as the winner.

Torres starred in I’m Still Here, a political biopic about Eunice Paiva, the wife to a man who was “disappeared” by Brazil’s military dictatorship in 1971. The movie was filmmaker Walter Salles’ first movie in over a decade. It will be released in Australia on March 27.

Torres’ mother, Fernanda Montenegro, was the first Brazilian actor to be nominated for a Golden Globe.

“This is a film that helps us to think how to survive in tough times like this,” Torres said.

Female Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama

Pamela Anderson, The Last Showgirl

Angelina Jolie, Maria

Nicole Kidman, Babygirl

Tilda Swinton, The Room Next Door

Fernanda Torres, I’m Still Here

Kate Winslet, Lee

The historical epic has won every category it was nominated in and its cast and crew are really happy. As you would be.

It capped off its night with the award for best drama series, and that’s on top of its three performance gongs for Anna Sawai, Tadanobu Asano and Hiroyuki Sanada.

In a streaming and TV landscape that has increasingly been given over to middle-of-the-road shows, Shogun is one of the rare ones that still values boldness. What other series would give as much time to delicate tea ceremonies (and all the political plays running beneath it) as it would to violent battles?

Shogun co-creator Justin Marks said, “Nothing about this show has been expected, truly it was made on the backs of thousands of fearless yeses that we received over the years from our East meets West cast and crew.

“An extraordinary cast standing right here, to our writers and directors, and our partners at Disney television, FX and Hulu. All of you said yes so many times over the years to a show that on paper you should never have said yes to.”

Television Series – Drama

The Day of the Jackal

The Diplomat

Mr & Mrs Smith

Shogun

Slow Horses

Squid Game

That third season of Hacks really was that good. Don’t believe me? Check it out for yourself.

Paul W. Downs, the co-creator, revealed in his speech that the production has a call time of 6am the next morning. So, “if Jean Smart asks you for a shot, please do not give it to her. Kate Winslet, I’m looking at you, wherever you are. Give her water if she wants it. Just a little one, maybe wine.”

Television Series – Musical or Comedy

Abbott Elementary

The Bear

The Gentlemen

Hacks

Nobody Wants This

Only Murders in the Building

Well, you can only pause it. Colin Farrell may have beaten Richard Gadd in the acting category but Baby Reindeer was always going to win the limited series award. It’s a juggernaut.

Gadd, the star, creator and writer, accepted the gong, and made a plea to keep financing smaller, dark shows.

“There’s been this belief on television that stories that are too dark and obligated won’t sell and that no one will watch them. This has been done away with that because right now with the world in the state where it is we need stories that speak to the complicated and difficult nature of our times.

“Any story, when done right, is universal and although we had idiosyncratic struggles we go through on a daily basis, are just as worthy of being committed to screen as any.

“When you are tallying up the numbers and putting together the budgets for this year, remember to keep some back for the little person to tell their story, thank you so much.”

Television – Limited or Anthology Series or Made for TV Movie

Baby Reindeer

Disclaimer

Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story

The Penguin

Ripley

True Detective: Night Country

It’s hard to consider the Box Office and Cinematic Achievement award as anything other than a consolation prize even though the hundreds of millions of dollars in grosses was compensation enough, surely.

Dune 2, which made more than $US700 million, didn’t even submit in the category, which kind of tells you about the credibility of the award.

Having said all that, Wicked is a good winner in this category. It is a film that is both hugely popular and actually a great movie. And director Jon M. Chu’s excitement on stage was palpable.

Chu paid tribute to the fans and their enthusiasm.

“The fans who came to the movie theatres, to bring your friends and families and in the dark, we saw your videos, we saw your sing-along, and your bakery items.

“It shows us how important making this stuff is at a time when pessimism and cynicism rule the planet right now. That we can still make art is a radical act of optimism, that is empowerment and that is joy.

“And so when we discover that maybe the world is not exactly how we thought it was that maybe we are a little bit Elphaba inside of us, when we have the courage and strength not to give up but to rise up and take the yellow brick road and maybe discover we can fly. Thank you very much. This means so much to all of us.”

I guess it’s nice that Wicked gets to come on stage because it - and the promo tour - was a cultural moment in 2024.

It is only the second time the category has been awarded. Last year, it went to Barbie.

Cinematic and Box Office Achievement

Alien: Romulus

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

Deadpool & Wolverine

Gladiator II

Inside Out 2

Twisters

Wicked

The Wild Robot

Emilia Perez, a musical, had two nominations in this category and won for the song “El Mal”, which is the one Zoe Saldana sings and raps in the film.

Again, Emilia Perez will be in cinemas in Australia on January 16.

Original Song – Motion Picture

“Beautiful That Way”, The Last Showgirl

“Compress/Repress”, Challengers

“El Mal”, Emilia Perez

“Forbidden Road”, Better Man

“Kiss the Sky”, The Wild Robot

“Mi Camino”, Emilia Perez